


The Road Goes Ever and On

by Marta



Category: Lord of the Rings (2001 2002 2003), Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Adventure, Cross-cultural, Double Drabble, Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-28
Updated: 2008-07-28
Packaged: 2017-10-17 03:30:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marta/pseuds/Marta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the long-expected party, Bilbo finds himself being swept away once more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road Goes Ever and On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pandemonium_213](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandemonium_213/gifts).



Bilbo looked back over his shoulder at the Party Field far below. The faint music of horn and flute danced on the wind, tickling his ears; he longed to turn back, to tell those foolish Brandybucks and Bolgers and all the rest that it had been only a joke. But no; such gaiety was now beyond his grasp. Had been for some time, if he was honest.

 _And to think I may outlive the Old Took yet – but it shan’t be long enough._  He winced at the irony: there were more unexplored paths now, more unsung songs than when he was forty, though he was nearly thrice as old. He cursed that Tookish blood that made him run off into the blue; now he dreamed of dwarves, and eagles, and  _mountains_  no less, but found little rest. There wasn’t near enough time to visit all the folk he longed to see.

He sighed to himself. He might be part Took, but he was still as practical as any Baggins; he couldn’t change what already was, much though he wished he could. Hitching his pack higher on his back, Bilbo ran off down the road to catch up with the dwarves.

**Author's Note:**

> ”A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.” (Bertrand Russel)
> 
> “Certainly it reminds me very much of Bilbo in the last years, before he went away. He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,’ he used to say. ‘You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.’” (J.R.R. Tolkien, “Three is Company,” The Fellowship of the Ring)


End file.
